Abohar, August 3
The varying climatic conditions in the sub-division on Sunday amazed people who passed through Abohar-Sriganganagar road (National Highway 15) and other areas.

It was raining heavily in and around village Khuyiansarwar which enjoys the status of sub-tehsil in this sub division. The residents of village Daulatpura were jubilant over heavy downpour but a postgraduate farmer Bhupinder Singh Brar said the youth and elders were confronting on taking credit for the same.

The elders said the yagya at an ancient site resulted in break in the dry season. The youngsters said their prayers had borne fruits. About 10 km away from this cluster of villages, it was a completely dry spell. And here in the town, the panicky PSEB staff switched off the power supply immediately as a mild dust storm lashed some corners. The residents had only clouds and cool wind to their share though the storm forced some trees to touch the ground.

Even when the town had no showers for last two days people in most of the villages located near the inter state and international border continued to go through sleep less nights for last four days, reports received here said. The region had no heavy rain after the first week of June. The farmers in desert area are happy with the fresh rainy season. Those who had sown "bajra, moth, moong and guar" during rain in June feared the crop may not survive because of unfriendly temperature. Now they hope early ripening and bumper crop. Besides, the greenery would be beneficial for the cattle to graze in now. Some of the sand mounds have started giving seasonal green vegetables which would bring down the prices also, some farmers said.

Reports received from the neighbouring areas of Sriganganagar district said scores of houses had collapsed in the rural area during last three days as rain lashed most of the villages. Heavy downpour was reported from border area of Anoopgarh besides Sadulshehar located on the Abohar-Hanumangarh road, Khajuwala and Rawla Mandi.

Here in Abohar two cattle got electrocuted last evening. 

Bathinda, August 3
The Punjab Civil Medical Services Specialist Doctors’ Association (PSDA) has demanded the creation of a separate ‘specialist cadre’ within the Punjab Civil Medical Services (PCMS) so that patients could be provided quality specialised services in rural community health centres and civil hospitals of the state.

In a resolution adopted at a meeting of the state executive held here today, the association said that there were more than 1,500 doctors with postgraduate and post-doctoral qualifications in the PCMS, but their services had remained under-utilised due to the lack of a distinct ‘specialist cadre’ and arbitrary postings that resulted in a gross mismatching.

The resolution further stated that the optimum utilisation of modern infrastructure available at 164 health institutions provided by Punjab Health Systems Corporation through a Rs 550 crore World Bank loan could only be achieved if specific specialist posts were created at health centres and hospitals. The resolution lamented that the state government had not implemented its own decision on the setting up of a separate ‘specialist cadre’.

The association also flayed the withdrawal of extra annual increments admissible to PCMS doctors with postgraduate degrees, diploma and house-jobs. It demanded that these additional increments paid to doctors for possessing higher qualification and skills be restored forthwith.

The resolution pointed out that due to lack of a cohesive policy on the utilisation of services of specialist doctors, often they were deputed for emergency duties. In fact, such duties need to be performed by general duty doctors so that specialist doctors were available for their work. In case this anomaly is removed the quality of specialist services would improve dramatically.

The resolution further stated that the shortage of specialist doctors within the PCMS in key specialties of obstetrics and gynaecology, anaesthesia, paediatrics, public health, TB, ENT, eye and orthopaedics could be overcome if the state government decided to restore postgraduate diploma courses in state medical colleges.

These courses that were abolished in early eighties had resulted in an acute shortage of such specialists and most of the health centres and hospitals of the state were without doctors with experience or qualifications in obstetrics and gynaecology. The hospitals were facing an acute shortage of anaesthetists required to manage operation theatres.

The association also demanded the immediate filling of posts of senior medical officers (SMO). More than 120 posts of SMO continue to be vacant and this has adversely affected middle-level management of health services in rural areas.

Bathinda, August 3
“We are six friends studying in a college and have been friends for the past five years. Of course, we have tiffs, but we make up quickly. Our collegemates have tried hard to break our friendship, but have failed. We are very fortunate to have such a deep friendship. Our friendship is the mainstay of our lives and is based on trust and respect for each other. We will give gifts on the Friendship Day and promise to uphold and cherish it for our lifetime,” said Varsha, Tanu, Preety, Abhinav, Raman and Jaswinder.

Friendship has been there since time immemorial. Can anyone forget the great friendship of Lord Krishna and Sudama? However, these days everything is commercialised as companies bring out cards and every year, the format and designs of cards change to lure customers.

This year along with the cards, friendship bands, pens, a small book on quotes of friendship are on sale. There is a brisk sale of several designs of friendship bands.

But there are many who dismiss the idea of expressing friendship through cards.

Lalit Jindal, a businessman, says, “I will never send a card to any of my two friends as we know that we are there to help each other through thick and thin. We do not feel a need to show how much close we are. We are schooltime friends and are presently in our thirties.”

“Is there anything like friendship these days? I have been betrayed by so-called friends both in my business and personal life,” said an embittered Rajeev Gupta. He said his friend with whom he had started business duped him and now he is in dire straits. “This is what friendship is these days!” he lamented.

Bathinda, August 3
Following a threat letter received by the Patiala station superintendent to blow up the Patiala railway station, the security at the Bathinda railway station and around railway tracks in the region has been beefed up.

Bikar Singh, sub-inspector, Railway Protection Force (RPF), along with an anti-sabotage team, visited the railway station here to step up the security arrangements.

The RPF and the Government Railway Police (GRP) were on alert in the area ever since the threat for planting of bomb on the Udyan-Abha Express was received a few days back. In view of the enormity of the task of keeping strict vigil at the railway station, the GRP had arranged with the local police and the RPF to conduct surprise checking.

The police forces, mainly the GRP and the Punjab Police, were working in shifts. The help of the RPF was being taken occasionally.

Singh said he was conducting surprise inspections at the station to see how alert the staff was. He said that he was pleased to observe that the local police team was searching the bags of commuters.

The railway police team was seen frisking people at all entrance points. A number of teams were formed for different tasks, including searching the luggage and the trains.

Singh said the GRP had issued special instructions to the police personnel for stepping up night vigil around the tracks.

Lehra Mohabbat (Bathinda), August 3
The PSEB engineers association in a meeting with the union minister  of state for power, Jairam Ramesh, today highlighted various flaws  in the functioning of the state  electricity regulatory commission that has failed to bring out the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) out of the red.

A delegation led by H.S.Bedi, president of the association, met the union minister during his visit here.

They demanded that members of the commission should be appointed on merit so as to improve it’s functioning.

The PSEB has also failed to reduce losses and touch the real maladies that were the cause of losses. Moreover, the state government had given subsidies to the PSEB as loans.

They demanded that the commission should be strengthened on professional lines without stressing for disintegration of the PSEB.

Barnala, August 3
The labour union of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) here has thwarted the attempt by the local police to detain their colleagues. The labour union led by Shinder Pal Sngh had a clash with a labour contractor Mann and Company. The contractor was managing the labour at Sangam Godowns, situated near Handiaya bypass.

But the local labour union protested the move alleging that Sangam Godowns comes under Barnala territory and any private contrcaor had no right to put his labour to work in their territory. The union leaders had a clash with the private contractor.

After the clash, the contractor allegedly sought the assistance of the local police. SHO Harmek Singh and SDM Barnala reached the site near ITI Chowk. As per Shinder Pal Singh, the local police tried to round up his men after lodging them into a police van. But the labour union activists organised a traffic jam to thwart the attempt.

It was only after the union activists were relesaed  that the blockade was  lifted. 
— OC

Barnala, August 3
Three of a Barnala family were reportedly killed in the stampede at Naina Devi temple in Himachal Pradesh.

It was learnt late on Sunday night that a local youth had gone to the famed Himachal temple along with his wife, mother and new-born son to offer thanks-giving prayers to the deity after being blessed with the son.

While he himself went for langar, his mother queued up at the temple along with the child. In the melee, the three perished. The deceased were identified as Maya Devi (52), Karamjit Kaur (24) and Harsh Deep (11-month-old). The youth Satpal Singh luckily escaped unhurt. They were all residents of Santa Wali Gali in Barnala from where 35 devotees had gone to the pilgrimage. Other members of troupe were reported to be safe.

More details are awaited. 

Bathinda, August 3
Members of the M.Phil Distance Education Union, Punjab today expressed concern over their future at a meeting held at Rose Garden in Bathinda. It may be mentioned that the Panjab University has declined to recognise the M.Phil degree acquired through distant education. Students of M.Phil distance education and lecturers from across Punjab attended the meet which was presided over by the president of the union, Jaspal Singh.

Worried over their future, the participants demanded that the university must give importance to their problem in its Syndicate meeting.

Addressing the members, Jaspal Singh said that queries under Right to Information (RIT) Act had been sent to different universities and they were expecting answers shortly. He said that a request letter had also been sent to the vice-chancellor, Panjab University, but the response was yet to come.

"We are demanding that the union representatives must be given an oppourtunity to meet the vice-chancellor of the Panjab University," he said and threatened that if their problems were not solved soon, they would launch a national-level struggle.

The next meeting of the union would be held at Kotkapura on August 10. Gurpreet Singh, Sandeep Sachdeva, Tajinder Singh, Monish Bansal, Rajan Wadwan and others also addressed the meeting. 

Bathinda, August 3
The Rotary Club, Bathinda Cantonment, in association with Canara Bank organised a tree plantation camp at Shakti Park here today.

Speaking on the occasion, Swami Suyra Dev stressed the need to nurture the trees after plantation with devotion and informed that the vanishing concern for trees would impair the healthy society and healthy environment. Swami spoke at length about the importance of trees and impressed upon the gathering to plant at least one tree in one’s life for future generation.

Ajit Jaitley, assistant general manager, Punjab National Bank, urged the organisers to sensitise the masses about trees and environment.

Rachna Oberoi, municipal councillor from ward No. 49 planted the first sapling and was all praise for the Canara Bank for making the tree plantation drive a great success.

Among others, Jasveer Singh Jassa, MC, BK Kailash and BK Tripta from Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishva Vidyalaya and Rotarians Suresh Goyal and Deepak Goyal were also present on the occasion. — TNS